Electronic gaming machines (EGMs), or gaming devices, provide a variety of wagering games such as, for example, and without limitation, slot games, video poker games, video blackjack games, roulette games, video bingo games, keno games, and other types of games that are frequently offered at casinos and other locations. Play on EGMs typically involves a player establishing a credit balance by inserting or otherwise submitting money and placing a monetary wager (deducted from the credit balance) on one or more outcomes of an instance, or play, of a primary game, sometimes referred to as a base game. In many games, a player may qualify for secondary games or bonus rounds by attaining a certain winning combination or other triggering event in the base game. Secondary games provide an opportunity to win additional game instances, credits, awards, jackpots, progressives, etc. Awards from any winning outcomes are typically added back to the credit balance and can be provided to the player upon completion of a gaming session or when the player wants to “cash out.”
Slot games are often displayed to the player in the form of various symbols arranged in a row-by-column grid, or “matrix,” which may define a plurality of symbol positions, and which may be generated by spinning a plurality of reels, each of which may correspond to a respective column of the matrix. Specific matching combinations of symbols along predetermined paths, or paylines, drawn through the matrix indicate the outcome of the game. The display typically highlights winning combinations and outcomes for ready identification by the player. Matching combinations and their corresponding awards are usually shown in a “pay-table” that is available to the player for reference. Often, the player may vary his/her wager to include differing numbers of paylines and/or the amount bet on each line. By varying the wager, the player may sometimes alter the frequency or number of winning combinations, the frequency or number of secondary games, and/or the amount awarded.
Typical games use a random number generator (RNG) to randomly determine the outcome of each game. The game is designed to return a certain percentage of the amount wagered back to the player, referred to as return to player (RTP), over the course of many plays or instances of the game. The RTP and randomness of the RNG are fundamental to ensuring the fairness of the games and are therefore highly regulated. The RNG may be used to randomly determine the outcome of a game and symbols may then be selected that correspond to that outcome. Alternatively, the RNG may be used to randomly select the symbols whose resulting combinations determine the outcome. Notably, some games may include an element of skill on the part of the player and are therefore not entirely random.
As described above, many EGMs are configured to display a plurality of reels, each of which may be spun and stopped, to display a plurality of symbols from each reel in a matrix of symbol positions. The symbols displayed from each stopped reel may be evaluated, such as by a computer processor, to determine whether any combination of symbols appearing in the matrix corresponds to a game award. Such known games do not include player-populated symbol positions that are not filled from the reels when they are spun and stopped. Further, such known games do not include a symbol display area that displays a sequence of player-selectable symbols for addition to or discard from one or more empty player-populated symbol positions of the matrix.
Accordingly, systems and methods for electronic gaming in which one or more rows and/or columns of empty symbol positions are not filled from the reels when they are spun and stopped are desirable. Further, systems and methods in which one or more rows and/or columns are held stationary while other rows and/or columns are spun are desirable. In addition, systems and methods including a symbol display area that displays a sequence of player-selectable symbols for addition to or discard from one or more empty symbol positions of the matrix are desirable.